Oscar for Best Animated Feature 2017

[Rose Dome]

I've never been keen on the animated feature category. A greater number of crass animated films are made because there's a chance of a major nomination. On top of that animated films (whether terrible, wonderful or in between) are very rarely appreciable for the same reasons as the live action films that tend to be nominated for the best feature award because the English speaking World's idea that animation is a genre which may sometimes rise above itself but never tell a story you could take seriously if it was at least partially live action is reinforced

Animation should be used for a reason but it can tell more sorts of stories than the creation of the category implies

[unprincess]

at this rate they might as well get rid of the category altogether. Especially if it comes to the point where all that gets nominated are the big studio films that made the most money.

[PatrickvD]

The Hollywood monopoly is nauseating enough as it is. Do we really need this category dumbed down further?

Lasseter has been soooo corrupted. Now he can continue to make the same lazy movie over and over for the next 20 years and not only get away with it, he can continue to pick up awards for them. Barf!

[estefan]

I don't think indie films will be completely nixed from the animated feature category. Do you think the animators who work at these big studios only watch and like big studio animated films? GKIDS has grown a lot since their first nomination seven years ago. You could almost call them the A24 of animation studios as they pride themselves in releasing smaller films and they work hard to make sure Academy members know about them. A24 even won Best Picture last year.

The Golden Globes nominated My Life as a Zucchini last year over the likes of Finding Dory and Kung Fu Panda 3 and their tastes in animation skew a lot more mainstream than the Academy does.

I don't think we should sound the alarm bells until the nominations are announced for the next Oscars. If all five nominees are big Hollywood titles, then the worrying was warranted. But I think The Breadwinner is definitely getting in. I think Academy members who volunteer to select the nominees in the category are more likely to watch that from their pile of screeners than, say, the My Little Pony movie or Smurfs: The Lost Village. In This Corner of the World is also a possibility.

[Disney's Divinity]

If all five nominees are big Hollywood titles, then the worrying was warranted.

No offense, but that doesn’t make any sense at all. We don’t need to see the results of the category’s riggage for the worrying over said riggage to be validated.

[rodrigo_ca]

I think it would be easier if the studios started to make movies to compete with those they're afraid of, instead of making sure they'll never make it to the competition. Alas, one can only hope.

[D82]

Art Directors Guild Adds Animated Feature Category to Its Awards
http://variety.com/2017/artisans/news/a ... 202530254/

[Sotiris]

Articles.

2018 Animated Feature Oscar Contenders: It’s A Wide-Open Race
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/awards/2018- ... 53048.html

2018 Animated Short Oscar: A List Of Qualified Films In the Category
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/awards/2018- ... 53937.html

Oscars: Kobe Bryant Brings Star Power to Animated Short Race
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/o ... ce-1040778

A New Animation Festival Launches, With Plans To Impact the Oscar Race
http://www.indiewire.com/2017/09/animat ... 201878762/

Animated Feature Oscar Race Sports Wide Range of Movies
http://variety.com/2017/film/news/oscar ... 202602986/

International Animation Pumps Up Awards Season Toon Race
http://variety.com/2017/film/awards/bre ... 202602976/

From ‘Lego Batman’ to ‘Ferdinand’ to ‘Boss Baby,’ These Actors Inspire the Animators
http://variety.com/2017/film/spotlight/ ... 202638288/

Oscar Animated Features Use Diverse Tools
http://variety.com/2018/film/awards/osc ... 202700268/

'Animation and foreign-language categories are ultra competitive this year'
https://www.screendaily.com/comment/com ... 13.article

A Look At The Leading Contenders In This Year’s Oscar Best Animated Feature Race
http://deadline.com/2017/12/oscars-coco ... 202223153/

Big studio offerings and little gems alike vie for attention in the Oscar animation race
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/en ... story.html

Under the radar: Animation with meaning and hand-drawn beauty
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/mo ... story.html

Despite new rules, animated Oscar contenders deliver another battle of the Davids versus the Goliaths
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/mo ... story.html

[D82]

For Your Consideration: Pixar's 'Coco' and 'Cars 3' - Including a Best Picture Note
http://www.pixarpost.com/2017/10/for-yo ... ars-3.html

[unprincess]

I think the indies with the biggest chance of noms are those with a Hollywood connection: The Breadwinner(Angelina Jolie) this year, Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson)for 2018, and maybe Loving Vincent b/c many of the voters less enamored of the medium might appreciate the live action film underneath the animation veneer.

and Im really happy G-kids has created its own animation festival. I imagine it was in response to the Academy's distasteful changes in the best animated film voting rules this year. They will need all the exposure they can get, might as well do it themselves!

[JeanGreyForever]

I think the indies with the biggest chance of noms are those with a Hollywood connection: The Breadwinner(Angelina Jolie) this year, Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson)for 2018, and maybe Loving Vincent b/c many of the voters less enamored of the medium might appreciate the live action film underneath the animation veneer.

and Im really happy G-kids has created its own animation festival. I imagine it was in response to the Academy's distasteful changes in the best animated film voting rules this year. They will need all the exposure they can get, might as well do it themselves!

I would love to see Cartoon Saloon win for once. Especially since Disney has no other offerings except for Coco at the moment.

[estefan]

I honestly wouldn't count out The Big Bad Fox for a possible nomination. Even if certain Academy members decide to just plop their kids in front of the screeners, if that movie is anywhere near as funny and charming as Ernest & Celestine, that's sure to be a favourite.

[Sotiris]

The first award of the season goes to Coco. What a shocker!

Hollywood Film Awards to Honor 'Coco,' 'Mudbound'
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/h ... nd-1048983

[estefan]

The Hollywood Film Awards have zero credibility. This is an organisation that will give awards to movies that haven't even screened yet, just to get some publicity. Tarantino even commented on this when they gave a best screenplay award a couple of years for a movie that he was still editing and hadn't shown a final cut to anyone yet.

I don't think Coco has even been screened outside of the walls of Disney and Pixar yet. Say what you will about the Golden Globes, but at least they watch the movies they give their prizes to.

[D82]

The Walt Disney Studios Awards website has been updated. Among other contents, you can now find Beauty and the Beast's script and some scanned articles about the film, or Cars 3's score there. It caught my attention that the songs from Beauty and the Beast they have there as samples are the pop versions of the songs instead of the movie versions. Also, Pixar's short Lou is in there, but not Olaf's Frozen Adventure. Are they not submitting the WDAS short?

[Sotiris]

Also, Pixar's short Lou is in there, but not Olaf's Frozen Adventure. Are they not submitting the WDAS short?

Even though eligible, Disney chose not to submit it. I've always found this practice of theirs highly disrespectful towards the filmmakers and all of the cast and crew who work on a project. Even if they don't want to spend any money on promoting and campaigning for it, the least they could do is just submit it. Even if it's a long shot. It costs them nothing to give it a chance.

2018 Oscars: 63 Animated Shorts Are Competing This Year (EXCLUSIVE)
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/awards/2018- ... 54329.html

[D82]

I've always found this practice of theirs highly disrespectful towards the filmmakers and all of the cast and crew who work on a project. Even if they don't want to spend any money on promoting and campaigning for it, the least they could do is just submit it. Even if it's a long shot. It costs them nothing to give it a chance.

I agree. Though Olaf's Frozen Adventure probably wasn't very likely to be nominated, they shouldn't deprive the creators of having that chance.

[Sotiris]

Tell us something that we don't know.

Oscars: Pixar’s ‘Coco’ Arrives as the Animated Feature to Beat
http://variety.com/2017/film/in-content ... 202609774/

No Contest This Year: ‘Coco’ Has Emerged As Frontrunner For The Best Animated Feature Oscar
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/awards/no-co ... 55720.html

[Sotiris]

26 animated features have been submitted for Oscar consideration this year. Plenty of eligible features were not submitted by their distribution studios such as Leap!, My Little Pony: The Movie, Rock Dog, Spark: A Space Tail, The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature, etc.

The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:

The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales
Birdboy: The Forgotten Children
The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
Cars 3
Cinderella the Cat
Coco
Despicable Me 3
The Emoji Movie
Ethel & Ernest
Ferdinand
The Girl without Hands
In This Corner of the World
The Lego Batman Movie
The Lego Ninjago Movie
Loving Vincent
Mary and the Witch’s Flower
Moomins and the Winter Wonderland
My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea
Napping Princess
A Silent Voice
Smurfs: The Lost Village
The Star
Sword Art Online: The Movie — Ordinal Scale
Window Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming

There's a lot of diversity in this year's contenders and a lot of high-quality films. Here's a breakdown of the indie films:

North America

My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea (USA)
Window Horses (Canada)

Europe

The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales (France)
Birdboy (Spain)
The Breadwinner (Ireland)
Cinderella the Cat (Italy)
Ethel & Ernest (UK)
The Girl without Hands (France)
Loving Vincent (Poland)
Moomins and the Winter Wonderland (Finland)

Japan

In This Corner of the World
Mary and the Witch’s Flower
Napping Princess
A Silent Voice
Sword Art Online

[D82]

^ Thanks for the list and the breakdown by countries! So this year there will be 5 nominees in the category, right? If I remember it correctly, there has to be 16 or more films submitted for that to happen. It's great that there's a big diversity in the contenders, unfortunatelly though, now that all the academy members select the nominees, maybe only the commercial films will get nominated. It's also curious that several eligible movies were not submitted this year. Has that happened other years? I don't remember having heard of similar cases before. I know these films didn't have much chance of being nominated, but why not even try?